University medics in trials of life-saving drug test kit

Doctors will be using the sweat from patients' fingerprints to test them for drugs.

The University of Leicester has been given a grant of £135,000 to see if it is feasible to use new technology which has been developed by a company called Intelligent Fingerprinting Ltd, a spin-off company from the University of East Anglia.

Professor Tim Coats, professor of emergency medicine at the Leicester University and an A&E consultant at Leicester Royal Infirmary, will be testing the device.

He said: "If a patient is brought into the emergency department unconscious we need to know if they have high levels of drugs in their body.

"Current tests take many hours so being able to analyse the sweat in a fingerprint could tell an A&E doctor what is wrong with the patient."

Dr Paul Yates, business development for Intelligent Fingerprinting, said: "Our technique for detecting the presence of drugs in a person's bloodstream by analysing a simple fingerprint could help doctors to make better informed decisions about appropriate treatments."

The money will be used to develop a hand-held fingerprint testing device and to see how feasible it is for use. The cash for the project is part of a £39 million Government health care grant.